Assaf Media publishes three trade titles, a documentary studio and a specialist imprint serving shipping, commodities and the built environment. A standing covenant bars the Group and every sister house from sight of copy before publication — including copy about themselves, and including the year we ran the Rotterdam story.
Titles
Every title is paid‑for. None carries a free circulation, a sponsored section or a supplement written by the advertiser. It is a harder business and a shorter list, and it is the only arrangement under which the reporting is worth anything.
Dry bulk, tanker and container markets, charter rates, casualty reporting and the arbitration docket. Read on the bridge and in the chartering room, which is why the rate tables run before the comment.
Grains, metals and refined product from the origination desk's point of view: crop conditions, port congestion, sanctions exposure and the provenance questions the rest of the trade press prefers to leave alone.
Planning, infrastructure and development finance across Europe, the Gulf and East Africa. Long‑form, drawing‑led, and unusually willing to report the schemes that quietly died at examination.
Long‑form documentary on trade, land and industry, commissioned by broadcasters and streamers. Fourteen films delivered, two of which were about industries the Group itself operates in.
Reference and narrative non‑fiction on maritime history, commodity markets and urbanism. Small list, long print runs, and every title kept in print for at least a decade after publication.
Independently assessed price and rate benchmarks for routes and grades the major agencies do not cover. Methodology is published; the assessment panel excludes every company in the Group.
Covenant
A trade publisher owned by a trading group is a conflict of interest unless it is written down and enforced. Ours was drafted in 2004, signed by the Trustees, and has been tested publicly twice.
Clause 1
No person outside the editorial floor sees copy before publication. Not the Group, not the Chairman's office, not the Trustees, and not the subject of the story, beyond a right of reply put to them in the ordinary way.
Clause 2
Our titles report on the Group's own houses on the same terms as any competitor. In 2019 The Charter Review reported a demurrage dispute involving Assaf Trades; the story ran unaltered and the editor remains in post.
Clause 3
Commercial staff have no access to the editorial system and no standing in editorial meetings. Advertisers are told before they book that a campaign buys space and nothing else.
Clause 4
Removal of a title's editor requires a resolution of the Trustees stating reasons, published in that title. The provision has never been invoked.
A publication the owner can edit is not a publication. It is a brochure.
Advertise
Our audience is small, verified and expensive to reach anywhere else: chartering managers, origination heads, port authorities, planners and the lawyers and lenders behind them. Rate cards are public and identical for every advertiser, including our sister houses.
Audience
Ninety‑four per cent of subscriptions are paid by the reader's employer and renewed annually. Sixty‑one per cent of readers hold budget authority. Circulation is independently audited each year.
Terms
No preferential rates, no editorial packages, no advertorial. Sister houses of Assaf Industries pay the published rate and are refused the same placements anyone else would be refused.
Contact
Newsdesks read everything sent to them and protect their sources absolutely. Corrections are published in the same position as the original and are never quietly amended online. Advertising and subscription enquiries go to the commercial office.
Assaf Media Limited, registered in England. A wholly owned house of Assaf Industries, operating under the editorial covenant set out above. Circulation figures are independently audited to 31 December 2025.
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